Techniques

Hammer Your Own Copper Hardware “…the decorative quality of such things is really wonderful.” —Gustav Stickley By David Olson Hardware doesn’t have to come from a catalog. You can make your [...]

In the world of handsaws, certain topics are taboo (or should be). We dare not talk about the origin of “the nib,” lest the conversation turn to the ridiculous. When discussing [...]

If you are one of the thousands of people who have taken a chair class at Michael Dunbar’s “The Windsor Institute,” then you have certainly used one of the travishers or [...]

Whenever I’m in the presence of a piece of furniture that is designed and built to perfection , such as a chair by Brian Boggs , it is a thoroughly humbling experience. Like I should just [...]

Adrian Mariano writes: I just watched your DVD (“Forgotten Hand Tools” from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks) in which you advocate the use of nails and drawbores to overcome the flaws in the [...]

10 good rules for workbenches and 10 ways to help your current bench work better.

This weekend I put the finishing touches on two Stickley tabourets; and while the little tables turned out to my satisfaction, the construction process proved quite vexing considering there are [...]

John Griffin-Wiesner writes: Thanks to your blog posting last week which alerted me to the closing of Auriou, I purchased my only three Auriou rasps. While explaining them to a non-woodworker [...]

This week I’m getting ready to build a Shaker firewood box for the I Can Do That column in our sister publication, Popular Woodworking. I really like building projects for this column [...]

Kelly Mehler has opened the registration for his 2008 classes, including three classes that I’ll be teaching on precision handsawing, planecraft and building the Holtzapffel workbench from [...]

Confusing the Beginners-In Person I don’t make many personal appearances, but next Saturday, October 27, I will be at the Woodcraft store in Roswell, Georgia. I’ll be giving some [...]

Preparing small tabletops or irregular-shaped tops for finishing can be difficult with handplanes. If the top has a lot of mass, you can usually count on friction to help hold the top in place. [...]